Historical disaster movie doesn’t dig deep enough

Five years ago, over one billion people watched as 33 miners were rescued from a Chilean mine after being trapped underground for 69 days. Now, viewers can experience the tale again, but sadly with less emotion than the actual event.

“The 33”, directed by Patricia Riggen, tells the story of the 2010 San Jose Mine collapse. Featuring a strong cast of Antonio Banderas, Juliette Binoche, Rodrigo Santoro and Oscar Nunez, the film focuses on Mario “Super Mario” Sepulveda, played by Banderas, who sent videos to the rescuers about the miners’ conditions throughout the ordeal.

Although set in Copiapo, Chile and featuring brilliant Latino actors, the movie is in English, which takes away the authenticity. While it’s an American film with many American actors, keeping the native language would have better connected the movie to the actual events. Instead, it felt detached using a different language, despite the Latino actors and locations.

Banderas’ character receives heavy emphasis and attention, and rightfully so, but the lack of other characters’ development leaves the audience feeling confused. Though it would be impossible to develop 33 miners and their families as characters, the film would have improved with more emphasis on more characters and their emotions while being trapped. This lack of development makes the plot becomes so simple, and in turn, makes the event seem less important, emotional and devastating than it actually was.

On the other hand, Riggen does an impeccable job of transitioning the film from underground to aboveground, making the viewer feel as if they were actually trapped in a mine. Riggen also takes interesting directorial risks, including dream sequence, which gives the film a well-needed light break from the emotional journey of the rest of the movie.

Although “The 33” does its job of a heartwarming family movie, it misses the mark to tell  a truly remarkable story and connecting the audience.
Overall: 6.5/10